SecondLine Themes Review: Build a Podcast Website on WordPress

What Is SecondLine Themes?

SecondLine Themes is a collection of five WordPress themes built specifically for podcasters. Available as a lifetime deal on AppSumo, you get access to all five themes starting at $49 for use on up to five active domains. Stack a second code and you unlock unlimited domains.

The themes aren't your typical multipurpose WordPress themes. Each one is tailored to a specific podcast use case — from single-show sites to full podcast networks. The two standout themes are Toussaint, designed for individual podcast shows, and Bolden, built for podcast networks that house multiple shows under one umbrella.

Three additional themes (Gumbo, Dixie, and Satchmo) round out the collection, each offering different styling approaches while maintaining the same podcast-centric functionality underneath.

Setting Up the Toussaint Theme

Installation follows a straightforward wizard-based setup. After activating the Toussaint theme, you're walked through installing a child theme, entering your license key, and adding a handful of plugins. Most of these plugins are free — Contact Form 7, Elementor, Easy Google Fonts, and the Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin among them. The only premium additions are the SecondLine custom add-ons for the theme and their podcast subscribe buttons plugin.

There's also an option to import demo content, which actually delivers on its promise. The imported site looks exactly like the thumbnails on the deal page, which isn't always the case with WordPress themes that promise one-click setups. The demo gives you a fully built-out homepage, about page, blog archive, contact page, and sample podcast episodes to work with.

What's particularly smart about the approach here is that SecondLine leans on Elementor for page building rather than baking a proprietary builder into the theme. Every page is a standard Elementor layout you can customize freely. If you already know Elementor, there's essentially no learning curve for the design side of things.

Podcast Episode Management and Custom Post Types

Under the hood, Toussaint uses the free Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin to handle episode management. This creates a dedicated custom post type for podcast episodes, which means your episodes live separately from your regular blog posts. That's an important distinction — you can maintain a blog alongside your podcast content without the two getting tangled together.

Adding a new episode is straightforward. You give it a title, write your show notes, assign it to a specific show via the podcast series taxonomy, and upload or link your audio file. You can enter the episode duration and file size, then publish. The default WordPress audio player handles playback, and it actually looks quite decent within the theme's styling.

The theme also introduces a custom post type for shows, which feeds into the show grid widget on the homepage. Each show gets its own page with a description, host avatar, background image, RSS feed link, and associated post category. There's even a filtering feature on the show grid that lets visitors sort by topic — a nice touch for sites with multiple shows.

The Podcast Importer and Subscribe Buttons

If you already have a podcast hosted elsewhere, SecondLine's free Podcast Importer plugin is a standout feature. You feed it your podcast's RSS URL, choose where you want episodes to land, and it pulls everything in — titles, show notes, and featured images. You can set it to auto-publish imported episodes or review them manually first.

The real power move is the ongoing import option. If you host with Libsyn, Blueberry, or any other podcast host, the importer can automatically grab new episodes as you publish them and add them to your WordPress site. That means you don't have to manually update your website every time you release a new episode.

The premium subscribe buttons plugin provides a pop-up widget with links to every major podcast platform you can think of — Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, Castro, Blueberry, Plex, and many more. If a platform isn't listed, you can add custom links. It's a small but practical feature that saves you from hunting down icons and building subscription link pages from scratch.

Bolden Theme: Built for Podcast Networks

The Bolden theme targets podcast networks — collections of shows grouped under a single brand or niche. Visually, it's quite similar to Toussaint with a slightly more professional, corporate feel. The layouts are comparable, with homepage variants including an episode slider and show grid, but the styling leans more polished where Toussaint goes more artistic.

The key backend difference is that Bolden uses the PowerPress plugin from Blueberry instead of Seriously Simple Podcasting. PowerPress doesn't create a separate custom post type for episodes, so your podcast content lives alongside regular blog posts. You keep things organized through categories rather than separate post types. It's a matter of preference — some people like the clean separation, others are fine with categories.

Adding shows and episodes in Bolden follows the same general pattern. Shows get their own custom post type with fields for descriptions, host info, background images, and RSS feeds. Episodes are added as posts with the podcast media URL attached. If you use Blueberry for hosting, the integration is especially smooth.

Final Verdict: 8.6 out of 10

SecondLine Themes earns a strong 8.6 out of 10. The approach of building on Elementor rather than reinventing the wheel with a custom page builder is the right call. You get the flexibility of a best-in-class page builder with podcast-specific functionality layered on top — custom post types for shows, episode management, podcast importing, and subscribe buttons.

If you're an Elementor Pro user, you can take things even further by redesigning the archive and single post templates using Elementor's theme builder. And if you happen to have Essential Addons for Elementor (a previous AppSumo deal), you can fill in gaps like the Instagram widget that the theme leaves empty.

For podcasters who want a dedicated website without hiring a developer, or for anyone building podcast sites for clients, this is a practical and time-saving tool at a very reasonable price point. It also pairs nicely with Podcast.co (another AppSumo deal) — build your site with SecondLine Themes, host with Podcast.co, connect them via RSS, and the two stay in sync automatically.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.